Battle Lines Forming On Arbitration Rules

Legislators, turning what has been a rubber-stamp action into a tug of war, sent another signal Wednesday that binding arbitration will be hotly debated this spring.

The Senate almost rejected the reappointment of a neutral member of the state Department of Education's arbitration panel, the group of arbitrators who settle contract disputes between school boards and unions for teachers and administrators.

Neutral arbitrators are selected by the commissioner of education to represent the interests of the public on individual, three-member arbitration panels.

After Lt. Gov. Eunice S. Groark broke an 18-18 tie to approve the reappointment of Robert B. Basine of Glastonbury, the Senate decided to postpone final action on the confirmation of Basine and six other arbitrators, to give legislators more time to review the appointees' records in making arbitration decisions.

"It seems that the standard for reappointment is that if they're up [for confirmation], they pass," said Sen. Robert L. Genuario, R-Norwalk, who led the fight to block the appointments.

Genuario said records of salary awards made by Basine and Peter R. Blum of West Hartford, another panel member up for reappointment, showed that they are not sensitive enough to the needs of taxpayers and towns hard pressed by the recession.

One award Genuario cited was a choice by Blum to accept a 9.47 percent salary increase sought by a union in Waterbury over the board's offer of a 6.7 percent raise for the 1990-91 school year.

The debate was similar to one in the House last week, but those votes were not close. Republican senators discussed the arbitration awards in caucus before Wednesday's session, said Sen. James T. Fleming, R-Simsbury.

"If we said no to a couple of neutrals here, I think they'd pay more attention to their decisions," Fleming said.

The Republicans were joined by two Democrats -- Sen. Steven Spellman of Stonington and Sen. Gary A. Hale of Ansonia -- in opposing Basine's confirmation.

Spellman said after the vote that he questioned a salary award made in North Stonington by Basine, in which the arbitrator chose a 6.5 percent offer from the union over a 6.1 percent salary offer

from the school board for 1991-92.

Other Democratic senators said it could not be judged whether an arbitrator was biased by looking at a few salary decisions.

Sen. Kevin B. Sullivan, D-West Hartford, co-chairman of the legislature's education committee, said the debates in the House and Senate show binding arbitration will be a tough debate when the issue reaches the full legislature.

Sullivan said that opposing an individual arbitrator amounts to an easy political statement, not a serious attempt to improve the binding-arbitration system.

"I think it's easier to vote against an appointment than it is to craft a change in the law," Sullivan said